Brigham Young was racist, according to Brigham Young

With the recent defacing of Brigham Young’s statue on the Provo college campus that bears his name, discussions about Young’s convictions regarding race have spread across social media and other platforms.

As enlightening as the opinions of scholars, writers, and Latter-day Saint researchers may be, direct quotes from Brigham Young clearly show he had strong and certain personal beliefs about race, religion, and superiority.

Whites are the superior race

“Nor yet elevate them, as some seem disposed, to an equality with those whom Nature and Nature’s God has indicated to be their masters, their superiors.”

Journals of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah …, pgs. 109–110, Jan 5, 1852

Black and White interracial relationships will be met with death

“Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so.”

Journal of Discourses, Vol. 10, pg. 110, Oct. 6, 1863

Black slaves are God’s ‘decree’

“Ham must be the servant of servants until the curse is removed. Can you destroy the decrees of the Almighty? You cannot. Yet our Christian brethren think that they are going to overthrow the sentence of the Almighty upon the seed of Ham.”

Journal of Discourses, Vol. 10, pg. 250, Oct. 6, 1863

American Indians are ‘savage,’ ‘ferocious,’ and ‘wild’

“Unlike any other Territory or State, we are entirely surrounded by savage tribes, who are wild in their nature, ferocious in their character; and being withal somewhat warlike, it becomes necessary to provide for the efficient organization of the militia. I would recommend, that encouragement be given to secure mounted troops, so far as practicable, as being the most expeditious and efficient, to protect the distant frontier from the depredations of this wild men of the mountains.”

Journals of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah …, p. 103, Sept 22, 1851

The purpose of this piece isn’t to frame Young as simply a racist or any other one ‘thing’ because all humans are a complicated combination of thoughts, choices, opinions, and actions. The purpose is to disprove the opinion that Young wasn’t racist.